Of winter and birthdays and stuff…

Let's face it, homes in the south of France are not by any means built to the standards of homes in the midwest. Primarily because they are not meant to have to withstand the midwests inhospitable winters. Doors and windows (and roofs, in places) leak like sieves A couple of weeks ago when highs were barely reaching 30° during the day and were falling deeply into the low 20°'s overnight, the radiators could not keep up. I had the dial turned up to 4, which tells you (or me) nothing since the damn thing has no thermostat, suffice it to say that I've never had that dial turned higher than 2. The thermometer that I keep in the bedroom seemed to struggle all day to reach 68° and would hover around 63° overnight. Everyone I talked to said they'd never seen it this cold in Toulouse. (Which is what they said for the last 2 summers about the heat waves, so I think they may just all suffer from poor long term memories) Heck, it snowed everyday that week; it rarely snow's here. Mind, not like a midwest snow, since the ground is hardly frozen it didn't actually accumulate at all, but it sure did snow like the dickens at times; I took pictures.

The view from my bedroom window. Mind, I hope you appreciate the sacrifice I made, since I had to take these photos with the windows open so you could get the best possible view. The things I do for you people!

The view of the front garden.

Anyway, all of that back ground to say this. There is literally a breeze blowing in the entry hall. Despite the fact that we brought and used rolls and rolls of window insulation strips from the US, the slightest breeze blowing outside creates a steady and chilly breeze in the front hall.

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In other news...Friday night I went out to celebrate my birthday (yes I realize that it was over a month ago) with Mags, Paula and Clare. It was a real girls' night out (well except for the absence of strippers...I kid). I haven't had a real girls' night out in a very long time. We went out to the Texxas Cafe for tex/mex french style. Probably the worst mexican food in the world, but heck they serve Corona beer and they make some of the best Margaritas I've ever had. Of course we started with 'aperitifs' at Paulas' before hand, where we finished two bottles of champagne between the four of us. Mags and Eliane bought me some gorgeous silk 'jamas. I absolutely love them! So anyway, due to events early on at Paulas' house, a good portion of the evening is a bit of a blur. We carried the party on to the Kilarney for an after party drink (I had pepsi and lots of water; I was driving) where we were a pretty subdued group. But by then it was after 2:00 a.m. Sadly (or fortunately) there are no photos from the evening.

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Speaking of birthdays, today is S's birthday. Happy Birthday! If you haven't shipped that gift yet, there's still plenty of time. Speaking of S, he has some meetings in St Louis from February 22nd thru March 5th, so I'm tagging along with him. Don't tell J, I want to surprise her and get a good look at what Illinois house looks like normally. Heh! Can't wait to see the look on her cute little face! And we'll have a Ya-ya birthday to celebrate too while I'm there. And there was mention of the remote possiblity of some stalking by Ky who promises to make sure I meet my Starbucks intake quota for the year. Ah, good times. Well, that's all I have for now.